Lubicon Lake Band has retained Neegan Burnside Ltd. (Neegan Burnside) to assist your community in preparing a Community Development Plan. We would like to inform you on the purpose of this Plan, the status of the project, the steps involved in developing the Plan and a little bit about who we are.

This Plan will ensure that your community is able to grow in a way that improves your quality of life while reducing harm to the environment and still be cost effective. This Plan hopes to identify suitable locations for future homes, potential community buildings (i.e., recreational facilities) and the infrastructure (i.e., roads, water system, wastewater/sewagesystems, waste programs, etc.) required to support future growth. The goal is to have a detailed plan outlining the next five years of growth in order to support the negotiation of agreements involving the community, Canada, and Alberta as well as secure the funds for this time period of planning, design, and construction of infrastructure. The longer term development plan (5 to 20 years) will be able to provide a guide for future land use and infrastructure development after the initial (approx. 5 years) period is up.

This project is just beginning and should be finished by the fall of this year. The planning process involves reviewing past studies, completing soils investigations, developing plans for housing and infrastructure, and most importantly gathering your input! This is your community plan and there will be opportunities over the next few months through surveys and meetings for you to become involved and provide feedback. Neegan Burnside would like to hear what is important to you and how you would like to see your community grow. Watch for articles in future issues of this newsletter and updates on the First Nation’s website for more information about our progress and how you can be involved.

Neegan Burnside is a majority owned, Aboriginal consulting engineering firm. We are committed to assisting First Nations in meeting their development and economic goals while remaining sensitive to First Nation community, culture, values and beliefs. We have successfully completed over 1,500 projects for more than 300 First Nation clients in North America. For more information about our firm please visit our website www.neeganburnside.com.